Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh said that he “will not be intimidated” into withdrawing his nomination to the country’s highest court as he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday afternoon.
His testimony followed statements made by California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, who took the stand Thursday morning to tell the panel over four hours of testimony. Throughout the proceedings, she said that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers in Maryland in 1982, when he was 17 years old and she was 15.
She told the panel that he held his hand over her mouth so no one could hear her scream.
“Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help,” Ford said. She also said that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were “drunkenly laughing during the attack.”
Ford said “absolutely not” when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh has suggested.
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While he did not denounce Ford’s claims entirely, suggesting that she may have been sexually assaulted by some person, in some place at some time, he maintained that he had never assaulted anyone. He added that he wished her “no ill will.”
Kavanaugh, however, countered later on that he is “innocent of this charge,” and that he had “never done this, to her or to anyone.”
The allegations came out weeks ago, after a private letter Ford sent to Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein was leaked. Since then, two other women have come forward with individual accusations against Kavanaugh, and several people have confirmed that Ford told them of Kavanaugh’s actions.
In addition, however, a letter signed by 65 women was released shortly after Ford’s allegations were made public, vouching for Kavanaugh’s character.
Kavanuagh told the panel Thursday afternoon that his family and his name have been “totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations.”
Democrats lauded Ford’s testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, “nothing short of heroic.”
“I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. … And I believe many Americans across the country believe you,” Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said.
Kavanaugh referred to reactions by Democrats to Ford’s allegations as “an orchestrated political hit,” and as “an attempt to blow me up and take me down.”
In her prior testimony, Ford refuted the notion that she was being used as a chess piece in a larger political game.
“I am an independent person and I am no pawn,” she told the committee.
Kavanaugh remained steadfast in his position during his address to the committee and through the questioning period.
“I swear today, under oath, before the senate and the nation, before my family and my God, I am innocent of this charge,” Kavanaugh concluded.
–With files from Reuters and the Associate Press.